A TWO-YEAR-OLD Teesside boy is starting a bright new life after an eight-month battle against a rare form of cancer.

Taylor Blanchard had lost all his hair, eyelashes, eyebrows and much weight during a powerful course of chemotherapy.

And complications in his last treatment session - which was meant to be the most straightforward - nearly killed him.

But now the spirited youngster is back to his lively self after putting the Burkitt's lymphoma in remission.

Taylor is not yet in the clear, but his grandparents, who look after him, are enjoying every minute of his new life.

"He is absolutely brilliant, he looks lovely. We can't believe it," said grandma Jacqueline Blanchard, 38, of Clairville Road, Middlesbrough. "He is like a normal little two-year-old boy now, running around and laughing all the time. He had no energy before."

In August, the Evening Gazette reported on Taylor's battle.

Although sufferers of Burkitt's lymphoma have an 80pc chance of survival, the treatment is particularly harsh, with strong drugs being injected through a line in the chest.

The course affected Taylor badly. He barely left hospital for several months. But it was the last session which held the biggest scare for the family when he developed an infection.

His temperature shot up and he began shaking uncontrollably.

Doctors at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary, where he is being treated, put him on antibiotics, which brought the symptoms under control.

"It was horrendous," said grandad Terry, 39, who himself beat leukaemia as a teen. "We were frightened then. We thought we had lost him.

"It has been a difficult year. Taylor has had a hard time of it, but he is a little fighter."

The toddler will have to return to the hospital for monthly check-ups for some time.

Terry said: "We are over the moon, but we don't get too carried away. Every time we go back we are on tenterhooks."

Family, friends and colleagues have helped them raise around £5,500 for a trip to Disneyland, but no date has been set yet.

Tees Health Authority figures show there are about 18 new cases a year of cancer in children under the age of 15 in the area, with three deaths each year.

Epidemiologist Mark Reilly said childhood cancers were rare on Teesside, in line with the rest of the country, with leukaemia and brain cancer being the most common.